Mental Plateau
 

Hi guys,

I'm reaching out for a little support and advice here. I'm down to about 143-145 pounds right now. Every time I've started to lose weight in the last 5 or 6 years, this is the lowest weight I get to. And this is the weight I start to feel comfortable at. All my clothes fit at this point. Most things look pretty good on me. People compliment me on losing weight. I feel amazing.

And then I get lazy. I stop working out as much...I start eating more and more bites of junk food...having more drinks, etc. Next thing you know, I'm back at 155 and miserable again.

I don't want to stop at 145. I want to keep going and get down to at least 130. How do I break this mental plateau?

I had my mental plateau around 225 lbs. I seriously convinced myself that I wouldn't be able to get below it.

I put away the scale for awhile. I focused on completing my healthier habits. I made sure I was exercising 5 times a week and eating on plan things, while drinking 10 glasses of water a day. I did not allow fast food, pizza, or any other sugary dessert. I weighed myself 5 weeks later and broke through that self-imposed limitation. That is all it is....

Do the opposite of this, and you'll reach your goal.

You can so do this! Good luck!

I know exactly what u are talking about. This morning I weighed in at 144.2 and haven't changed my weight bcause I'm thinking it will bo temporary. I have been in the same spot as u several times.
Find something to look forward to...weight or social wise. Right now I am trying to stay motivated by Halloween coming up and I want to wear a costume with sex appeal. Then, after that it will be for Thanksgiving where I will see the family u only see once a year and want to rub it in the face of the naturally thin but not so thin anymore cousins(don't worry they are evil)!!

I second everything you say.

Althougyh I am not at goal yet, I now like what I see in the mirror, wear a dress size I can accept and get loads of compliments. All this sort of makes me feel as if I have reached my goal already.

My subconscious must feel that I have reached my goal and therefore can relax. I do less excercise and am sneaking in things which I did not have at the beginning. At the same time, small weight gains make me freak out (as I see myself immediately gaining it all back), and then I cut back until I`ve lost it again.

Fact is - I feel good about myself. I`m no longer overweight and do not mind losing the rest of the weight more slowly. Therefore, it`s fine to relax my diet, although I do need to watch my excercising, especially now that the cold season has started. I`m now at a weight which I am satisfied with, and I don`t mind plateaus, for as long as I do not gain it back. In the long run, I still want to lose the rest of the weight, but I really don`t mind the timeframes.

I also agree with Jokan`s advice to find something to look forward to. There are two things for me: I`m job hunting and need to look good in a suit (and feel confident about my whole self to present well at interviews), and I`m due to go home before the end of the year and want them to see that I have *not* gained it all back on this time (but hopefully have lost some more).

Maybe, the latter may work for you, too. If you say that you usually started to gain again once you at your cw, wow them and show them that you can actually do better!

I'm going to invite you to join us in Featherweights where complacency is a very common problem. Please, come and join our chat thread.

I'm getting to the point too. I've had thrill of going down a couple of dress sizes and I've gotten used to having collarbones. I have more energy. I've had all the "wow you look terrific" compliments, and my husband has actually told me that I really don't need to lose any more weight (this is an attempt to be supportive and he followed it up with... "not that I needed you to lose weight anyway").

This is great except I'm still 9 lbs over a normal bmi and I don't really feel like I'm far enough from the sort of weight I maintained for years (164 lbs) that I won't quickly gain it all back.

I try to keep this in mind to stay motivated and not get complacent. I'm also working on fitness goals rather than strictly numbers on the scale goals so that the healthy habits will stick around.

What better health 3 said is true, we need to recognize and keep an eye out for the patterns we fall into and yank ourselves out of it whenever we can... and the weight will keep going.